Uncovering the Fallen
by Illeia Evalion
Summary: It's time for Sora to return to his past so he can finally set it free.


Uncovering the Fallen

Large boots that held tired, battered feet trod heavily on the broken ground. Though big, they tread very carefully along this place, too scared to break this fragile world and too respectful to unsettle the remains.

This consciousness was wise and belonged to the hero of this long told story. He fought battles for everyone with a key in his hand and a heart on his sleeve. He let people burrow their way deep into his heart, as they were his strength as he was theirs. He was the hero that became not a battle cry but a gracious bow, a candle light of hope burning inside of everyone he touched. He walked the very edge of the worlds, outran the river's flow and burned all the darkness away with a fist full of ice.

He was the Sora of this story.

Yet, here he was on a day like no other for reasons only he felt. Leaving all else behind him he walked the distance between worlds to reach this particular place. Some might say he felt a calling, something he had left behind that was trying to claw its way back into his life.

His infinite blue eyes gazed around at this damned world, a big mess he had never before had the courage to clean up. The lesser buildings that had once stood here were long gone but the wreckage of a castle lay all around him. It lay like charcoal upon the glassy ground, concealing all sorts of dead wonders. The bodies of his dead foes were nothing but a howl in the wind, but whatever keeps someone alive after death, whether it'd be memory or their legacy, was very much still here. They lay hidden to the naked eye, waiting to be unlocked by the Hero that had taken away their rights for existence.

This was a vast graveyard of 12 particular foes of his, and though he had not directly killed all of them, they could have stood a second chance of life had it not been for him. However, it was just the way it was meant to be, just like it is in every told story.

Sora walked forward, making sure to repeatedly check that his head was in the right place lest he should be taken over by the darkness that had drowned this sorry world. With every step that he took a flash of twisted lightning struck. They were bold at first, allowing dangerous light to shine through the inky black sky, but then it just became fainter and fainter before vanishing completely.

Sora's eyes spotted countless petals lying pitifully on the glass floor. Each petal was burnt and Sora knew why. As he passed each one he watched in deniable sorrow as they burned up completely into ash.

Passing further into this world he saw a deck of frozen cards dance around him lightly, each one of them shattering at his touch.

Only when he sees the area around him dry up, Sora realises that it was wet in the first place. A sodden tune had died and played its last note here before lying like down, casting a damp atmosphere around the area. But it had all dried up in his presence and it allowed Sora to spot a flickering light from the corner of his eye.

He looked over to where it had come and saw a tiny light shine from under the wreck. He immediately approached it and set the small flame free by uncovering it from its prison. Watching it dance slightly before him, he felt a small tear trickle from his eye and while he was wondering how it appeared he watched it fall onto the flame and put it out upon contact. Sora watched helplessly as the flame vanished before his eyes and felt the same feeling of great sorrow rise up in his chest again.

Continuing on through his haunting journey he heard something crack beneath him. Lifting up his shoe, he spotted a broken shard of something lying restlessly on the ground. Picking it up and examining it further, Sora saw that it was a part of a moon. Which moon, he wasn't sure but it couldn't be the one of Kingdom Hearts, could it? Shaking the thought from his head, he let the shard turn to dust and slip through his fingers before continuing forward.

Sora didn't get too much further when he realised that there was an old, torn book sitting on top of the black wreckage. Some of the loose papers were picked up through the wind and flew towards Sora at a heavy speed before turning to ash as soon as they came into contact with his aura. He approached the fragile book carefully and held it in his hands. Ink dots were blotted all over the rich pages so it became unreadable. Before he could do anything the book began to burn violently black in his hands. He dropped it from his grip in surprise and watched as the black ink burned its way to nothing.

Sighing, he allowed his feet to lead him further through the wreckage. Suddenly he felt the ground break beneath him. Casting his eyes down in alarm he watched as the glass began to crack further and brake away. He waited expectantly for it to fall through on him but instead found that the cracks in the glass had split, emitting a ghostly moan from its depths, accompanied by faint black smoke.

Sighing in relief he returned to walking. As he trod the careful ground, all of the rubble and wreckage that were covered in thick ice broke away, shattering into thousands of tiny fragments. But Sora continued on, unflinching and unscathed.

The wind that floated over the world leapt up suddenly and ferociously ahead of Sora, slamming itself through his body, taking all the air from his lungs in one big wave. Sora felt his body lurch forward at this contact but soon found that he didn't need the air that had been taken from him. This world didn't need it, and so long as he was here, he didn't either.

Letting his lungs fall into a slight slumber he watched as the world all around him begin to rise up. All the burnt, destroyed land that once was hovered above the ground for a moment before floating up to meet the swirling mass of darkness that greeted it with one big swallow, sending everything but nothing out of this domain.

Sora embraced the eerie silence that followed. As he had anticipated, the presence of nothingness itself began to surround him, caressing his skin lightly and cascading in out of his mind almost as if it were greeting him like an old friend. This haunting presence would also disappear soon, Sora was sure of it, and that meant he had fulfilled his purpose in this world and must leave hereafter.

Sora raised his hand and placed it gently over his heart and felt it beat against him. Through his heart he felt another presence within him, and he took his time to pay his final respects to the boy who had given up all evil and his own life to join Sora.

Although, forgotten and almost unknown, a different presence felt Sora's smooth hand over her final resting place. Upon his touch, she smiles and closes her eyes.

This place was the start of this story to many people but to others it was the end.

To Sora it was neither. For this is the World That Never Was and Never Will Be.


End file.
